


Kindred

by MysticalAuthoress



Series: Fate Brings Us Together [4]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Escape the Night Season 1 Spoilers, Escape the Night Season 2 Spoilers, Escape the Night Season 3 Spoilers, F/F, Family, Family Feels, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Grieving, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Escape the Night Season 4, Takes place post Escape The Night Season 3, headcanons about the Society Against Evil abound, takes place before Escape The Night Season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-07-29 11:23:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20081404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysticalAuthoress/pseuds/MysticalAuthoress
Summary: Just after coming back home from a mission, Calliope finds a teenager in the woods surrounding the mansion. She, Jael, Ryu, Vincent, Mortimer, Jetpack Girl and Riley must make a choice, but same goes for the kid. Also known as: How seven Helpers kind-of adopted a child and try their best to be parents, despite have absolutely no experience or idea for doing so, while said child copes with the new arrangement of living with seven other people.





	Kindred

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Escape The Night!
> 
> Other notes: This fic takes place post-“Here We Go Again,” and also takes place around just after the events of “Never Be The Same.” Also takes place prior to Season 4. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy reading!

Calliope was _exhausted._ It was a simple solo mission turned complicated when a Hydra she fought against ended up multiplying more heads than she could burn off at once, but still.

Now she found herself walking through the gate, closing it behind her as she walked towards the mansion’s front doors. She just wanted sleep. A little nap before dinner, honestly. It would help.

That was when she heard a rustle in the bushes. Turning towards the source, expecting to see an animal, she found (instead) a person. One that Calliope didn’t know.

The person gasped, and turned on his heel.

Calliope, on instinct, ran after him. Her legs ached from her earlier mission, but she had to know what was going on, or who was there. Who could it be? Someone from the village (there happened to be a village or town of sorts that was a fair distance away from this mansion, and the existence of other people made sense due to this being the Victorian Era and all), or someone else?

She pushed through bushes, almost tripped over several downed branches, but she cornered the source of the rustling bushes at the edge of the woods.

“Don’t come closer!” The person was a teenaged boy. He couldn’t be any older than sixteen or seventeen, given the youthful look of his face. He looked rather thin, arms shaking as he held up a shotgun and pointed it at her. “I-I’ll shoot!”

Calliope held up her hands in surrender. Last thing she wanted to do was

“Are you,” The young one swallowed, then managed, “Are you…with them?”

_Them?_ “With who?”

“The other werewolves?”

She quickly shook her head. “No, child. I’m with the Society Against Evil. I mean no harm towards you.”

The boy’s eyes darkened, and he gripped the shotgun even tighter. “You’re with the guys that killed my dad.”

Calliope swallowed as she vaguely recalled Jetpack Girl telling her about what the past guests had to do to free Riley. Unsealing one of the seal meant killing a werewolf (the one that killed Alison the vampire princess) and a Confederate named Cash.

It hit her that this kid was the werewolf’s son. Now, what was the werewolf’s name…?

She remembered. She looked the young boy (almost a man) in the eyes. “Your father…he was Atticus?”

“Yeah.” The teen looked like he’d start crying soon. “That’s him.” He slowly lowered the shotgun, looking like he might burst into tears. Calliope felt the instinct to approach and hug him, but she wasn’t sure that was the smartest idea.

“I’m not going to harm you.” She repeated. “I promise. What’s your name, child?”

“Dylan.” The boy, peeked up at her as he carefully wiped at his eyes with the back of a hand. “What…what are you gonna do…?”

It was clear that he’d been out here all alone. And for quite some time, too. Probably since the Sorceress’ death, which meant he’d been around for months.

All this time, and Calliope didn’t know of his current existence until now. The boy must be smart at stealth. Made sense, given his past with his father and them being hunters, of a sort.

She doubted the child could be alone for much longer, though. He didn’t look too healthy. He could starve to death at this rate, and she wouldn’t allow an innocent (even if they were the child of a previous enemy) to die like this.

Calliope sucked in a breath, looked Dylan in the eye and made a decision. “You can come with me, if you’d like.”

“What!?” Dylan backed up a bit more, and Calliope feared he’d bolt. “But, the Sorceress…”

“She’s been gone for a while. A_ very_ long while. The only people left in that manor are good people, and I know them well.” Calliope reassured him, extending a hand towards him. “You’re safe with us. I promise.”

Silence settled in as she watched Dylan’s shifting gaze towards himself, then her, then around the woods, and then to her one more time. He swallowed, before he nodded a little bit, getting to his feet. Calliope stood up fully to meet his gaze.

“Yeah.” His voice trembled, but the look in his eyes was sure. “I’ll come with you.”

* * *

Calliope explained the situation as best as she could to everyone. It seemed that poor Dylan, having no one else to be with and nowhere else to go, just ended up camping in the woods surrounding the manor the whole time. He hadn’t realized that the Sorceress no longer had any control over the place, though he did notice that the werewolves were long gone, hence his camping and staying in the area.

Riley fed Dylan freshly made soup, Vincent helped set up one of the spare rooms for Dylan to sleep in for now, and Jetpack Girl swore she’d take Dylan shopping in the morning (his current clothing was close to falling apart any second) or at least find some spare clothes in this mansion. Though wary at first, Dylan was grateful that he had a place to stay that wasn’t in the forest. It would take some getting used to (walls were things he had to make sure not to run into, and that there were doors to open and close other than having a large, open space full of trees and bushes like the forest), but he’d figure it out.

* * *

But then the question came, later that night.

“What are we gonna do with the kid?”

Dylan was fast asleep upstairs. Everyone else gathered in the lounge to talk about the situation. Sure, they could take care of themselves, but taking care of a teenaged boy was another thing entirely.

“If food is the issue, I’m sure we can ration things out pretty well.” Riley pointed out. “He also knows how to hunt, too, so it might actually be of help to all of us.”

“I don’t think food is the issue.” Ryu managed, shaking his head as he sat down on one of the couches. “It’s the fact as of whether it’s safe enough to be caring for a child so young while we’re all doing our own work. Me, Jael, and Calliope all have our own Society Against Evil work. Sure, there’s the rest of you that are here more often, but is that going to be enough? Will he have the time and attention he needs?”

“You make it sound like he’s a houseplant, but he’s not…I dunno if that’s a huge issue, taking care of him.” Mortimer shrugged, an arm wrapped around Vincent’s shoulders as they sat on the couch opposite Ryu. “I mean, if he’s survived so long by himself, he’s clearly self-sufficient. Maybe his cooking skills haven’t touched a stove in a while, but I’m pretty sure he could learn fast. Besides, he can pick up after himself, and that’s the most important thing.”

Jael gave him a look. “Mortimer, he’s still technically a minor. He may still need guidance before he reaches adulthood, even if he is more self-sufficient than most kids we’ve encountered.”

“Mom raised me on her own and was constantly busy as Mayor, and I turned out fine. Mostly.”

Vincent bit his lower lip, before his gaze looked to Jael. “Is there anything that the Society Against Evil has about its members caring for children and/or teenagers? What do they usually do?”

“Well...” Jael stretched her arms behind her back, frowning. “Most of us usually try not to have families, mainly because our work often is a matter of life-and-death and we don’t want to leave the child or children suddenly orphaned if we die. And if we do have families there are cases of some members completely leaving the Society Against Evil to safely have a family without work life endangering them, which is a pretty common trend. Otherwise, there’s the rare chance that our enemies will use our families against us.”

Riley paled at that last bit. “That’s…not going to happen to _us,_ will it?”

“But,” Jael quickly continued, trying not to end on such a bleak note, “There _have _been cases where members of the Society Against Evil do balance their work and family life, or even have their children continue their work later in life. There are seven of us. We could make it work, given our unique situation.”

Calliope gave Jael a look. “Are you saying we should adopt Dylan or become his legal guardians just so we have another SAE member in the future?”

Jael grimaced. “That _might_ be a bad way to word it. But that’s _a possibility_, assuming Dylan wants to be adopted _and_ wants to join the SAE.”

“While we’re on the topic of defeating enemies…Calliope,” Jetpack Girl managed, “Did you ever tell Dylan that killing his dad was part of how we had to free Riley and defeat the Sorceress?”

Calliope swallowed. “No. I did not.”

_“Shit.”_ Jetpack Girl shook her head. “How are we supposed to break it to him?”

“He knows that the past guests here killed his father already.” Calliope managed. “And he knows the Society Against Evil was involved in some way. But he doesn’t know the full details.”

“So…” Vincent asked, looking between everyone and utterly confused, _“Don’t_ tell him the details?”

“I dunno if that’s a great idea.” Jetpack Girl scratched the back of her head. “I mean, what if he finds out after a month of withholding that from him? He’d be pissed.”

“I don’t think telling him immediately is the best idea, either.” Ryu pointed out. “We literally just let him sleep here today.”

“Maybe we should just see how he adjusts, and wait for a good time tell him?” Mortimer asked. “I mean, I remember the first week I came here. I definitely needed time. Maybe he needs that, too.”

“Also,” Jael interjected, “We can’ t just straight-up adopt him immediately. He has to be fine with that too.”

“Aww.” Jetpack Girl looked genuinely disappointed at that. “I would think it’s easier if we did! I mean, there’s seven of us and one of him. How complicated can it get?”

_“Very.”_

* * *

Dylan seemed to settle in okay during the next few days, learning to cook from Riley and hanging out with Jetpack Girl as he watched her work on fixing up or inventing things. The adults of the house managed to find some spare, mostly-plain-ish clothing that fit Dylan, for now, but they were also sure that they still needed to take him shopping at some point during the week. Dylan, though clearly unused to being in a house (he literally walked into a door one morning by accident), and also being in a house where there were romantic couples (he walked in on Riley and Jetpack Girl kissing, and then he later walked in on Mortimer and Vincent kissing), seemed okay overall.

The adults (and one child) hadn’t fully figured out whether this adoption of sorts would go through, but maybe they’d approach that topic in time. They expect Dylan to have some questions about laundry and stuff.

What they didn’t expect were the tons of the questions thrown at them about _each other_.

“Does Vincent always stare at the lights?”

“Just sometimes.” Jetpack Girl shrugged as she finished fixing up one of the various machines in the lab, and then looked to Vincent. The former madman had his eyes on a few flickering lights from a nearby generator. “Don’t worry, he snaps out of it at some point.”

“Huh.” Dylan looked around, then looked towards the set of blueprints on the desk. “And this is…?”

“Those are, uh,” Jetpack Girl turned to see them, before grimacing. “I should’ve put those away.”

“But what are they?”

“Blueprints that my old boss had for his automaton bride. I think this is a copy.” She sighed, looking to him. “My boss, Cedric…well, he made the bride, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Is he here in the house?”

“Nah. He left with her as soon as she was completed.” Maybe it was best not to tell Dylan that it was only because Cedric took Gabbie’s heart to do it. At least not now. “And after the Sorceress was defeated, it was just me and Riley. And then Vincent showed up. As far as we all know, the Society Against Evil deliberately sent him here to stay.”

“They can send people from different places to here?”

“From different eras? Yeah. That’s how me and Riley met Mortimer, other than Vincent. Same goes for Ryu, Calliope and Jael.” Jetpack Girl couldn’t help but grin as she thought back to Everlock. “Most of us met in this one place in the 1970s called Everlock.”

“You come from the future?”

“Huh?” Jetpack Girl had to think about for a moment. “Oh yeah. I mean, we live in the eighteen-hundreds. I guess they would come from ‘the future’ to us. But we had to save people that were from the _future_ future, twenty-eighteen. Or is it nineteen?”

“I think it was eighteen at the time.” The two turned to see Vincent staring right at them this time, and not the lightbulbs. “It’s been about a year since we’ve helped them?”

“Almost a year?”

The former madman shrugged. “Something like that.”

“Yeah.”

Dylan slowly nodded, but he didn’t look like he fully understood everything.

Jetpack Girl offered him a sheepish grin. “It’s complicated. I know.” She paused, looked to Vincent again. Maybe it would be good for him and Dylan to bond a bit, so… “Hey, Vincent, wanna go hunting with Dylan?”

* * *

“….how long does it take to…”

“Shh.” Dylan and Vincent currently were in the bushes, waiting for the rabbit to approach the trap. “It’s almost there.”

“Okay.”

Vincent shut his mouth after that. He’d never done any hunting in the woods back in the 1920s, so this was definitely different for him. He imagined Dylan must’ve learned a lot from his own father.

Dylan previously asked Vincent about his past family. Vincent, honestly, could not remember for the life of him. His most previous memories were his time in the straitjacket, or in the electric learning chairs, not in a happy home with friends and family like right now. He hated that he couldn’t remember, but maybe…

The trap snapped around the rabbit, killing it quickly but quieter than expected. Vincent watched Dylan move out of the bushes and take out the rabbit carefully.

“This can be supper tonight.”

“I…see.” Vincent tried his best not to stare at the corpse in Dylan’s hands. “Maybe we can bring that back to the kitchen and see what we can do with it. I think Riley found some cookbooks recently.”

Dylan shrugged. “I usually just cook it over an open flame.”

“But we have a stove.”

Dylan relented and Vincent just hoped that they wouldn’t burn the rabbit by accident later.

* * *

“One, two, three, one, two_owww!!!”_

Mortimer groaned as he held his foot as Jael stepped back from him. “Jael, this is the third freaking time you stepped on me!”

Jael stared down at their feet. “I thought we were rotating to the left!”

“We were going to the right!” He shook his head, a sigh escaping him. “For goodness…you can kill a Carnival Master, seal a town for forty years in the 1970s, but you can’t dance a waltz?”

Jael could only shrug as she looked up at him. “I guess the talent had to end somewhere.”

Dylan stared between them, having just entered the ballroom. Vincent had taken the rabbit to drop off at the kitchen for whoever was cooking dinner tonight. Dylan would’ve offered to cook, but he didn’t know how to use a stove properly yet, so he figured he’d leave the rabbit to whoever was cooking. “I don’t know how to dance either, if that’s reassuring.”

“Never learned to dance, huh?” Mortimer looked to Dylan, then Jael, then Dylan again. “I guess you’re in the same situation as her and Ryu, then. I only learned what I know from Riley and Jetpack Girl.”

“Speaking of Jetpack Girl,” Dylan asked, recalling seeing Jetpack Girl and Riley talking to each other during his time in the house so far, “why does Riley call her Joanne?”

“We all kind of do.” Jael shrugged. “Riley named her in the first place, though.”

“She didn’t have a name before that?”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

Mortimer paused, then asked, “So, Dylan…do you wanna try learning to dance?”

Dylan stared back at him. “Were you a dance teacher back in Everlock?”

He laughed. “Far from it. Riley just taught me the steps. But I think I can_ try_ teaching.”

Jael took a step back from both of them. “I’m just gonna watch. Good luck.”

Dylan had a very bad feeling about the dance lesson, but decided that it wasn’t the worst thing in a world (what could be worse than almost becoming a werewolf and knowing that could risk ripping your own body apart due to being too young for it?). “I’ll do it.”

* * *

Dylan groaned as he lay on one of the couches in the parlor. His toes ached. A _lot._

Actually, _all _of both feet hurt a lot. Was it normal to be in so much pain just for dancing lessons?

“Are you alright, Dylan?”

He looked up to see Calliope walk in. She wore the leather armor stuff that he saw her in when they first met, but there was the addition of a shawl draping her shoulders. It seemed out of place on her, but it also suited her. He wasn’t sure why it did, though.

“I’m fine.” He managed, sitting up. “Just…tired, I guess. Also sore.”

“I thought so.” She held up a bucket of water, faint steam wafting from it. “This may help soothe the soreness. Just dip your feet in.”

She put the bucket down, and Dylan figured hey, _why not try it?_ Rolling up his pant legs, he sank his feet into the water. It wasn’t actually too hot, the water a balm to his sore feet, and a sigh escaped him as he relaxed. He looked up at Calliope, who sat down beside him. “Thanks.”

She offered him a smile. “Bless you, child, for surviving Mortimer teaching you dancing.”

Dylan couldn’t help but chuckle. “I appreciate it.”

“Also, he stuffed a _guitar _under the couch earlier this week.” Calliope sighed, shook her head. “What kind of person stuffs their guitar under the couch?”

“Mortimer, apparently.”

“Yes. That is so.”

The two fell into silence. Dylan swallowed, remembering one past late night, and he looked to her.

“I know about _why_ my dad died.”

He watched her stiffen, before staring straight at him. “You knew this whole time?”

“About him and Cash dying so the seal could be broken, yeah.”

“I’m sor—”

“I’m not angry at you and everyone else about it.”

Calliope stared at him, speechless for a moment. The frown on her face wasn’t one of being upset, but rather of disbelief. “You…mean that?”

“Yeah. I mean,” Dylan took a deep breath, averting his gaze from hers, “I was mad at first. All I knew was that the last I saw of my dad was his bleeding-out corpse after that explosion happened to him and Cash. Buried them both in the deeper part of the woods afterwards. But when I overheard all of you talking about why that had to happen, last night…maybe it was for the best.”

“You don’t miss your father?”

“I do.” He _always_ would. “I miss him every day. But what he became, after those other werewolves got to him…that’s not the Pa I know. He was never like that before he transformed.”

His dad always was a man of his word. A risk taker (why else would he take that gem?), and a good man. It had just been Dylan and his dad for years. But the werewolves…

He buried his head in his hands, running them through his hair. “I just…I don’t really know what to think of it.”

Calliope didn’t say anything at first, but then a sigh left her. He felt her hand on his shoulder, and he looked towards her. She took a deep breath, before speaking. “You have every right to be upset about your father’s passing. But…I am also grateful that you don’t hold his death against us. So...thank you.”

Dylan felt himself grin, just a little. “You’re welcome.”

It was then that Riley came to mind, the woman who was trapped in the glass all this time until people had to die for her freedom.

“Where’s Riley, anyway?”

“Oh, uh, Vincent took that rabbit you and him captured and gave it to her to try cooking. She’s probably in the kitchen preparing the rest of dinner along with it, too.”

Dylan figured it might be worth seeing her. Probably was worth seeing her, given that she lived in the same house as he and everyone else did.

* * *

Dylan passed by Ryu on the way to the kitchen. Ryu looked to Dylan quietly, before speaking.

"You doing okay? Calliope went to go find you with a bucket of water..."

"She found me." Dylan managed quietly. "She really helped." He'd went barefoot, at least for now. He'd put the shoes back on later. 

Ryu nodded, but then Dylan saw the small smile on his face. "I'm glad about that."

Ryu left to go check on Jael 'for her sore feet.' Dylan vaguely recalled Jael once telling him that she and Ryu were previously dead for forty years, and it made him wonder if those two were closer, like Jetpack Girl and Riley or Vincent and Mortimer were. Oh well. That's a question for next time. 

* * *

“Oh, Dylan?” Riley turned to see him enter the kitchen, and she smiled. She had an apron on, stirring a pot full of soup with a ladle. “Dinner will be ready in the next half hour, if you’re wondering. The rabbit’s still roasting in the oven right now.”

“Uh, thanks.” Dylan paused, watching her cook. “How did you find a recipe?”

“It took me and Vincent some searching, but we found one that has some garlic to season it…” Using her spare hand, she reached for a book, before offering it to Dylan to read. “I forget which page, but I think it’s in here.”

Dylan found and read the recipe, the smell of the roasting rabbit wafting in the air as he did so. “Have you made this before?”

He saw her almost cringe at that. “No. I hope it works.”

He just hoped he didn’t get sick. “You can ask me for help next time, if you want.”

“That sounds good.” She then looked down at his bare feet, blinking. “Weren’t you wearing shoes earlier..?”

“I took ‘em off. Had to stretch after Mortimer danced all over my feet.” A groan escaped him as he recalled the memory. “I’ll be okay.”

“Ah. I see.” Riley giggled a bit, looking up at him. “That makes much more sense now. He’s getting better than he was a week ago, though. Jael and Ryu still struggle but they’re working on it.”

“How do you all live together?”

Riley went silent, a small frown appearing on her face at first, but then it faded as she tilted her head, pausing in stirring the soup. “Well…at first, it was just me and Jetpack Girl. Vincent came along less than a day later. We’re not sure how he came here; as far as we learned so far, it’s likely because of the Society Against Evil.”

“Calliope brought him here?”

“No. Different members, probably. Then we got asked to come to Everlock, where we met Calliope and Mortimer, and later on Jael and Ryu, before coming back here. We’ve been together ever since.” She smiled, looking him in the eyes. “And now that you’re here, there’s eight of us and it feels a lot like…a family.”

Dylan blinked. “I’ve only been here for about a week.” Everyone else had been here for at least a couple of months, if not a year or so as far as he understood.

Riley offered him a sheepish smile. “Maybe it’s a bit soon for you. But that’s just…how I feel. It’s better than the past, for sure.” She decided not to linger on that any longer, with a shake of her head, but the smile remained, but more peaceful. “We’re all just glad you’re here.”

Dylan wondered for a moment if his Pa would be happy that he’s here. Sure, the werewolf side of his father hadn’t been considerate (and also short-lived, given what happened to him in the end), but the Pa he knew before that? Maybe he’s doing better off now. And meanwhile, Dylan knew he had people around him. People that cared for him. People that he liked sticking around with.

He could get used to that.

“I’m glad I’m here, too.”


End file.
